The Clippers never will be as popular as the Lakers. But right now, heading into their meeting Friday night at Staples Center, the Clippers are the most exciting, entertaining team in town.

The Clippers are young, athletic and marketable, and no less an authority than Magic Johnson endorses their at-times breathtaking style of play.

“I thought I would never, ever see ‘Showtime’ again. And I was the architect of Showtime,” the former Laker said during ESPN’s Christmas Day NBA coverage. “The Clippers? That’s Showtime.”

Kobe Bryant – who earlier this week called his Lakers “an old damn team” – agreed with Johnson’s assessment, describing the Clippers as “spectacular” and “fun to watch.”

TV viewers and executives clearly feel the same way.

Clippers ratings on Prime Ticket are up 80 percent over the last non-lockout season, 2010-11, according to The Nielsen Company. Meanwhile, the Clippers appear on ESPN the maximum 10 times this season, including Friday’s game (which also can be seen on Prime Ticket and Time Warner Cable SportsNet). They’re also maxed out on TNT with nine appearances, including back to back on Jan. 17 and 24.

But here’s the real sign of the Clippers’ burgeoning on-court success and off-court appeal: They’re on ABC four times. Before this season, they never had appeared on the network during the regular season.

“They’re reinventing a brand that was based on futility, that was the (subject) of late-night talk-show jokes,” said David Carter, executive director of USC’s Sports Business Institute. “They’ve created their own identity, and they’re reaching out to fans.”

There’s just as much substance as style to these Clippers, giving hope that that new identity is sustainable. Since Chris Paul arrived last season, the Clippers have been legitimate playoff contenders. Despite losing two in a row, they had the third-best record in the NBA entering Thursday.

As great a player as Paul is, he doesn’t have the wow factor of teammate Blake Griffin, who’s capable of a YouTube-worthy moment every time he comes flying down the court. As of last month, Griffin’s dunk over Kendrick Perkins was the fourth-most-viewed NBA video of all time, according to USA Today. He also had the eighth-most-popular NBA jersey.

Griffin has a long way to go to catch Bryant, who’s No. 3 on that list, but Griffin already is a more likeable commercial pitchman.

Heading into the playoffs, NFL games have accounted for 31 of the 32 most-watched TV shows since Labor Day. (The lone exception: the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC, No. 23 on the list.)

Some additional notes, courtesy of the NFL and Nielsen:

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” ranked as the most-watched prime-time program for the third consecutive fall season, averaging 21.4 million viewers.

The Week 17 SNF game between Dallas and Washington was the most-watched Sunday prime-time game in regular-season history with an average of 30.3 million viewers.

The “national” Sunday-afternoon games on Fox and CBS are, on average, the most-watched programming on television. Fox averaged 24.8 million viewers in that window, CBS 23 million.

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” was the most-watched series on cable for the seventh consecutive year with an average of 12.8 million viewers.

REMOTE PATROL

Ever wonder how the NFL became king of the American sports landscape? NBC Sports Network will document its rise in a four-part series entitled “Star Spangled Sundays.” The series, via Ross Greenburg Productions and NFL Films, debuts at 7 p.m. Tuesday. … Apparently, having Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl wasn’t such a bad thing after all: The rating for the game was up 34 percent over last year. The Rose Bowl rating was down 8 percent, but the game was still the most-viewed non-NFL program on cable since the 2012 BCS title game. … If you missed the awkward postgame interview between Heather Cox (who was just trying to do her job) and Stanford coach David Shaw (who didn’t seem interested in stopping to talk, for whatever reason), it’s available on YouTube. The even stranger exchange between Jeannine Edwards and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney after the Chick-Fil-A Bowl – he lifted and hugged her — can be found at TheBigLead.com (http://bit.ly/S3sWql). … MLB Network and MLB.com will reveal the results of this year’s Hall of Fame voting at 11 a.m. PT Wednesday.

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